Obsessed

May 13, 2013
In this multifaceted overview of the widespread, and unhealthy, fixation on food, Brzezinski (Knowing Your Value) shares her personal story of disordered eating that began with binges in her high school years. As she reviews the merit of a "healthy thin", she considers not only obesity's direct blows to personal health but also its toll on one's earning potential and health care costs. Co-author Smith's personal story of food struggles, which for her culminated in obesity, serves also to summarize some of the country's most popular diets, pills, and surgeries throughout the years. Research revealing the highly addictive nature of processed foods is woven with personal tales over-consumption. Effortlessly shifting from a biochemical focus to a spectrum of other harmful inputs, with dips into food philosophy along the way, the book addresses matters like self-soothing with food following trauma. The inconsistency of format and narration proves mildly distracting; however, this does not the tales of their power. When Brzezinski tackles large-scale solutions, she endorses specific governmental action, particularly that undertaken by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. The authors have produced a thorough compendium to benefit those embattled with food as well as readers curious about the background of a dangerous epidemic.

April 1, 2013
Svelte and fit, Brzezinski is the envy of millions of women who watch her on MSNBC's Morning Joe, a bully pulpit she uses to forcefully admonish viewers about the importance of proper diet and exercise. Few would suspect that her vehemence stems from a personal addiction to junk food and binge eating that has plagued her all her life and that her ironclad willpower actually borders on an unhealthy obsession to stay thin at any cost. Only when she candidly confronted a friend, coauthor Smith, who was morbidly obese, did Brzezinski come to realize that her famously stringent attitudes toward food and fitness were just as harmful as her friend's more indulgent lifestyle. With personal and professional input from celebrities such as Jennifer Hudson and public officials such as Governor Chris Christie, whose weight-loss battles are headline-generating events, Brzezinski and Smith polls the worlds of medicine, media, entertainment, and business to analyze our nation's obesity epidemic and offer advice about adopting healthier habits.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)